A Helping Hand
by ShuffleCat
Summary: The team has found themselves in some tricky situations lately. Luckily, they've had a helping hand. The only is, they've got no idea who it's from. The only clue they can find is inside an old brick building nestled in New York.
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1**

Tony let Steve down once he'd managed to reach solid ground. The mission today had so far been…exhausting. Steve had been thrown off of a building as the roof exploded, while the others were inside searching for survivors after a bombing. Tony had managed to catch Steve just before the man had hit the ground; Spiderman had caught Clint, who had been on the same rooftop as Steve but on the opposite end, reloading his bow.

"Alright team, are we ready to call it quits?" Tony asked over his earpiece. They had been in the shaking building for fifteen minutes now. Each minute left him feeling more and more certain the building was going to collapse on them.; they were pushing their luck.

"Just about there, let us search this floor first then we can go." Clint replied, heading down a hallway. Spiderman headed the other way, keeping his senses focused on the noises of the building. He hadn't told the others but he wasn't keen on a building falling on him.

Again.

Clint was about ready to call it after a few more minutes but he heard…someone down the hall. It was definitely a call for help but barely loud enough to hear. He moved towards the sound and found a woman on the ground, her leg caught underneath a filing cabinet that had fallen over. Luckily a nearby let light into the dark room; only part of the window was uncovered. Another filing cabinet had fallen over, partially blocking it.

"Can I get a hand?" Clint asked over his earpiece; he knew Spiderman would be quick. He added "Quickly?!" when a rumble shook the building. He was right; the other hero was with him in only a few seconds. It was easy work to lift the filing cabinet while Clint helped the woman up. The building ended up collapsing internally as they stepped out onto the street. Talk about close calls.

"Nice work Clint, got that woman out just in time." Steve said, finding the archer sitting on the curbside. He was holding a cardboard cup of coffee Natasha had got for him. Clint suspected Natasha had taken hot drinks around to everyone.

"Only because I heard her screaming." Clint said, shrugging. Steve frowned at the comment. "Her throat must be raw; she was so quiet."

"Did you? She said she'd given up, hadn't called out for a few minutes before you turned up."

"Dunno man, I heard someone yelling and there she was. Weirder things have happened to us."

"It's almost annoying how true that is." Steve said, shaking his head. "Tony wants to go out for dinner, you in?"

"Sure, why not."

Clint pretended not to hear the very obvious 'yes!' that came from an excited Tony Stark off to the side; he still appreciated it though. He also appreciated Tony paying for everyone's dinner when they weren't paying attention.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

"Spread out, they can't hide in here forever!" A man shouted from the doorway Steve and Bucky had come through only a minute or two earlier. They were hiding in the darkened warehouse, amongst the shipping containers; Tony had managed to take out the base's main power supply, shorting out a good chunk of the lights. The man annoyed Steve, mostly because he was right. Eventually they'd find him and Bucky; this was worse than usual since Bucky was injured.

His leg had been struck twice by lucky bullets and walking was proving difficult. The wounds would heal but that didn't do them much good if they ended up dead anyway.

Bucky was mostly worried because there were _so many _bad guys; it was a huge group, close to twenty guys with what looked like full riot gear.

"We've found our hostages, where are you two?" Natasha asked over the comms. They couldn't risk making noise by answering her.

"America and Co, report in." Tony added after they got silence for Natasha's question. "Please?"

Steve noticed the urgency in the word but he couldn't risk being discovered.

"Fourth aisle clear, moving on!" Someone shouted. Steve had no idea what aisle he was in, either did Bucky.

"Dammit guys, where the hell are you?!" Clint's voice came over their earpieces. They should've been out ages ago. The team must be…panicking. Worried over Steve, unsure over Bucky. Bucky still wasn't sure where he really fit in with everyone. "Stark, stay where you are! A blind search party doesn't help us."

Steve let out a sigh of relief, along with a silent thank you to whichever god decided to turn the few remaining lights off. They were in total darkness now, rather than the almost darkness they'd run into to stay alive. They couldn't see anything but the noise was enough of a warning that something was happening. What sounded like a massive explosion came from one of the corners of the warehouse, the opposite end to where Steve and Bucky were hiding, though they had no idea how far away that really was.

"Holy shit, Bucky's comm is live. I got an audio location!" Tony shouted, excited and relieved. "Let's fucking go!"

Bucky grimaced; he hadn't meant to leave it on. Oops. Though to be fair, it _had _worked in their favor. They could hear footsteps and the rustling of heavy gear as the men moved towards the noise. They still couldn't see anyone though. Now Steve and Bucky just had to wait and hope their team found them first.

"Who's there?!" The main man shouted; Steve was really sick of his voice. "Reveal yourself!"

There was silence, then an odd…rumbling noise, like someone laughing.

"I am…Iron Man!" The voice of Tony Stark echoed through the warehouse, followed by the sound of a second explosion. It was a few seconds later that a hole was blast through the roof, flooding the warehouse with light again.

"Let's go, jerkwads!" Tony shouted from the Iron Man suit as he flew in through the hole and threw himself into battle. Now that they could see, Steve and Bucky began to fight as well, working their way towards the door they had entered through. Apparently the bad guys had begun to move back towards the entrance and had seen Steve and Bucky leave their hiding spot. Eventually they got out and were eventually safe on the quinjet, while Natasha and Clint waited for SHIELD to retrieve the scientists who had been taken hostage.

"Not bad timing Stark." Bucky said, leaning against one of the walls of the jet. He had sat down as soon as Steve had let him go, not wanting to have any weight on his leg for a little while. The bastard hurt.

"Thank you Frosty. So what did you guys blow up?"

"Us? We figured it was you, we were too busy hiding." Bucky said, Steve raised an eyebrow at the conversation.

"You guys didn't make all that noise?" Steve asked, genuinely confused.

"Not us. We couldn't see any outside damage so we figured it was something inside the compound. Huh." Tony said, frowning. "What a mystery."

Bucky stared at the opposite wall, then smirked.

"What's funny Buck?" Steve asked, noticing his friend's face.

"Imagining what the faces on those idiots must have looked like when Stark announced that Iron man was there. Must've been good."

"…You guys are imagining things. I didn't say anything until I called them jerkwads."

Steve frowned, leaning back in his seat and staring ahead at the front window of the jet. What the hell was going on? Surely a group of people shouldn't be sharing hallucinations…he'd have to check with Bruce.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

"Tony I don't know what you want me to say." Bruce said, shaking his head at his friend.

"That we aren't collectively losing our minds." Tony told him, hoping Bruce could explain why they seemed to be sharing the same hallucinations.

"Some assurance would be nice." Clint said from across their table in the busy restaurant they'd chosen for lunch. "I'd like to be sure I'm not suffering from mass fucking hysteria."

"I don't know guys; you've been exposed to a lot of nasty stuff. It could also just be from high stress levels, or a lack of sleep."

"Not making me feel any bette- oh come on!" Tony was interrupted by the Avengers alarm coming from his phone. "We're having lunch!"

The battle wasn't far from the restaurant. Some sort of portal seemed to have opened near a warehouse that Tony knew well; Scott Lang's workshop. The team found Scott and Hope in the street; Scott was fighting with the police. Hope was watching Scott fight with the police.

"Let me back inside, that's my warehouse!" Scott shouted, trying to shove past one of the officers. His face was bruised on one side, blood dripping from lip.

"What happened Lang? One too many portals? Lose control of one?" Tony asked, smirking as he landed beside the other scientist. "Oof what happened to your face-"

"Stark! You guys can't…god dammit! I didn't do it! There was an explosion and this…thing appeared!"

"Lang, you had Cassie today, didn't you?" Natasha asked, appearing beside Tony.

"S-She went back inside to get a book…they won't let me back in to find her!"

"Alright team, everyone ready? We've got confirmation of life inside." Steve asked over the communicators, then they all moved into action. "Everyone on the ground has a buddy, if you're airborne you keep an eye on the portal. Widow and Hawkeye, you're looking for Cassie. Me and Bucky will try and find a…source for the portal inside, we don't know what's caused this, so everyone needs to be careful."

"Roger that, Captain." Spiderman's voice said over the communicators. He must've found them.

"Spiderman, stay with Clint and Hawkeye. Your senses will come in handy in case anything happens…or, is about to happen." Steve said; the 'spidey-senses' thing was a little odd. Helpful though.

With plans made, they got to work.

The building was spacious, full of equipment that looked as if Peter would faint at knowing the real cost of. It was bright, thankfully; there were parts of the buildings illuminated by a purple light coming from the portal that was slowly spinning in the air above the building. They had no luck finding Cassie, or any hint as to what caused the portal to appear in the first place.

"Uhhh guys, maybe time to think about- FUCK!" Tony's voice was cut off by a sudden rumble, then an explosion of noise. The portal had disappeared, sucked inside out and eaten itself up; this was great, apart from the fact this had made the building incredibly unstable.

"What the hell was that sound?!" Clint shouted, looking behind him for Natasha. She was laying on the ground, a chunk of wall laying beside her with specks of blood stuck to it; it had struck her. A section of what looked like a metal beam was laying across her legs, pinning her still body to the ground. "Nat!"

Someone pushed past him and suddenly Spiderman was there, lifting the metal beam as if it was nothing. Clint rushed over so he could gently move Nat back, away from the metal so that Spiderman didn't have to hold it for long. He dropped the metal beam and stared ahead, down the hallway they'd been following.

"Can you hear that?" He asked without looking back. "There's someone at the end of the hall. I'll go check it, if you want to stay here if her-"

"Yes. Thank you." Clint said, crouching beside Natasha. "Steve-"

"On my way to you now. Picked up your signal from your communicator." Steve came over his earpiece; Clint relaxed a little at the news. "We've lost Tony though; the explosion seemed to have acted like an EMP, the suit lost power and we can't locate him after his fall."

"Well, shit."

"Agreed. Nearly to you."

Spiderman continued down the hall, keeping his senses keen in case anything came towards him. He stopped as he reached for the handle on a door at the end of the hallway. There was a glass panel in the middle of the door, much like office doors he'd seen before; it smashed open suddenly, a rock flying through to his side of the glass and falling to the ground beside him. Through the now broken window, he could hear the voice more clearly.

"…Dad? Dad!" A girl's voice was what he had heard, and now it was even louder.

"Cassie?" He asked, opening the door slowly. "Hello…oh no!"

He saw the little girl laying on the ground, a sweater balled up underneath her head. A few droplets of blood had dripped down her head from a gash on her forehead.

"Spiderman, what's going on?" Steve's voice came over the suit. "I've got Bucky coming to you now."

"Oh, fantastic." He grumbled, then remembered both Steve and Bucky had super hearing as well. "Uh, I found the girl. She's unconscious…but…"

"But? What's wrong?"

There was movement behind him as Bucky entered the room and stood beside where he was crouching next to the girl.

"Who put the sweater there?" Bucky asked.

"That's it, someone else must have been here…but where have they gone?" He asked, looking up and scanning the room. A number of the windows were broken from the portal and the following explosion; there was no way to tell if anyone had broken them on purpose.

"We move her out, then we come back and check." Bucky said. Peter nodded and lifted the young girl, letting Bucky lead the way out so he could check the walkway for debris before Spiderman found it. He knew the kid didn't really need the help but, he felt like he should assist in some way.

Back at the tower, after checking on Scott over the phone, Steve joined the others in the lounge to watch a movie.

"She's just woken up. Nasty knock to the head by some rubble but…luckily, apparently someone was with her." Steve told them.

"Who?" Bucky asked. "They must have left the sweater."

"No idea, she had no name, just a loose description-"

"Dark hair, glasses, no longer wearing an orange sweater." Tony said, bursting into the lounge from the elevator. They hadn't noticed it ding as it arrived on the floor.

"Yeah, how-"

"Look." Tony said, pointing at the TV before sliding his hands into his jeans pockets and watching the footage that appeared. It was footage caught from what seemed to be a high angle, possibly a rooftop beside the building they'd found Cassie in. A girl with long dark hair climbed out of the building through a window and looked down the alley she'd found herself in, before running in the opposite direction of the main street. It was only a few seconds of footage, which played again and again, repeating itself.

Tony paused the footage, stopping it on the frame of the girl's face as she turned to look back at the main street.

"That's not all."


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

"What _is _this?" Bruce asked, looking at the information Tony had brought up on the TV screen. "Some kind of…energy reading? A huge fluctuation, which makes sense given the portal but…with the time stamp, the portal was already gone."

The group noticed Thor joining them and gave quick hellos without looking away from the screen; Peter was the only one who noticed Loki standing beside Thor. Peter was seated at the dining table, working on some work for school. He was also sort of avoiding the team. Not that he'd admit it to anyone.

"How ya been big guy?" Tony asked, lowering himself onto the couch beside Bruce, eyes fixed on the screen still.

"Very well, thank you Friend Stark. I was busy helping Loki in catching a rogue wizard. Luckily Loki was able to follow the trail of his magic."

"Much like you all seem to be doing." Loki said, alerting the others to his presence. Tony jumped from his seat at the voice. Steve looked up from the report he'd been given by SHIELD; he was reading it on his tablet. Far more convenient than stacks of paper.

"Loki!" Clint shouted. "What the- I mean hi but, what the hell?"

"What did you mean?" Peter asked. "About us looking for a wizard."

"The energy readings on your screen; they are very close to how your machines would read magical energy. Usually, magical energy used by a wizard of some sort."

"…A wizard? She doesn't really look like a wizard…" Tony mumbled, then noticed the looks of confusion on Loki and Thor's faces. He played the footage for them, while Steve told them what had happened.

"How did you even get the footage?" Clint asked.

"The suit had rebooted itself, thank god, while I was catching my breath on the roof I happened to land on. Very strategically. It had gone into surveillance mode while I was out of it."

"Surveillance mode?" Steve asked.

"If it determines a threat is nearby while I'm out of commission, it notifies one of you guys."

"Well we didn't get anything, so…either the suit couldn't notify us…" Steve said, and Tony finished.

"Or it didn't think it needed to. Correct."

There was a pause of silence from the group. Peter packed his homework away then leant back in his seat to stare at the girl on the screen. She looked normal enough. Long hair that was either black or very dark brown, glasses and…well, that was about it. Then he noticed it.

As she turned back to run down the hall, he noticed the glint of light against glass as her glasses fell off her face, and headed out of shot towards the ground.

"Uhh...Mister Stark?"

"Hmm? Sorry, what's up Peter?"

"No it's…you're fine, her glasses fell off."

"…What?"

"When she turns, you can see them kinda…fall away, they must've been loose on her face-"

"Holy shit, he's right!" Clint shouted, interrupting Peter. "Kid, think about what you want for dinner, our treat tonight. Let's go have a look!"

Tony had to admit, Clint's positivity about it was…contagious. He found himself grinning, at Clint and at Peter hiding his face in his hands. The kid still got embarrassed around the team, _especially _when one of them noticed him. It was easier to hide it as Spiderman, much harder to conceal himself as regular Peter Parker.

Later they found themselves at the building again, in the little alley that ran beside it. It was later in the day now, so they needed extra torches to provide enough light to see properly. Tony wasn't wearing the suit – not yet – he had his suitcase in case something happened. Scott found them; he was there checking over damage to equipment.

"What…are you guys doing in the alley?"

"Scott! Lang! Hey, how have you been?" Tony asked, a little startled by the man's voice.

"…Fine, just checking out the damage. What are you up to?"

"Just searching…for…clues?" Tony offered but had to admit, they really didn't know what they were looking for. "All we know is there should be a pair of glasses here and they aren't here so, we're a little stuck."

"None of you wear glasses, that I know of…not out in the field anyway. OH&S you know? Why didn't you ask for camera footage?"

"OH&S…camera footage?" Bucky asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Occupational Health and Safety, and yeah, we've got cameras outside and inside. Do you _want _the footage?"

"Yes!" Tony shouted, pleased the investigation could continue.

"Alright well…I'll email it to you? No, too big of a file. I'll get you the recorder box, saves having to move files over." Scott said then disappeared into the building. The team moved back to the main street, where Scott found them a few minutes later. He handed what looked like a cheap VHS machine to Steve.

"Lang-"

"It's a VHS _case, _the actual recorder is inside. Doubted anyone wanting to steal from us would take that." He explained, cutting off Tony. "Should have footage from the last…week at least, maybe two."

"Thank you, Scott." Steve said, holding out his hand.

"What…are you guy actually looking for? If you don't mind me asking." He asked, nervously taking Steve's hand and shaking it. _Holy shit this is Captain America's hand. Don't freak. _He managed to let go in an acceptable time frame _and _stopped himself from freaking out. A job well done.

"We think we may have found who helped your daughter but, we only have a short clip of footage." Steve explained. "Hopefully this will help figuring out who she is."

"Oh. Good, I still have her sweater."


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5**

The group gave their thanks before heading back to the tower so that Tony could get the footage from the tape for them to watch. They saw her enter the alley, walking straight through to the other side. Problem was, that was three days before the portal opened. She seemed to be in the alley twice each day, likely using it as a shortcut somewhere. On the day of the portal, she was already in the alley when the portal appeared, the force of it's creation knocking her into the wall beside her.

"She seems to talk to herself, a lot." Bruce pointed out. It was true, her mouth had been moving in almost every clip of her. She pulled herself up, back into her feet and seemed to notice the window across from her. She didn't move for it immediately, it took almost a full 30 seconds before she walked over and climbed through a window that was partially open. She didn't leave the room for almost fifteen minutes. She climbed out of the now very broken windows and raced out of the alley, minus her glasses and sweater.

"So, what now?" Clint asked, leaning back on the couch.

"We'll get Friday to take some still shots and try to run a face match. Might take some time…"

The team fell into chatter about what to do, which Peter listened to from his seat. He decided to ask his question, ten or so minutes into their discussion.

"Why _are _you trying to find her?"

"Because- hey!" Tony shouted, seeing Peter sitting on top of the kitchen counter with his legs crossed beneath him. "Why are you sitting on the counter?!"

"Because you said not to sit on the ceiling anymore. Why are you looking for her?"

"What-" Clint whispered to himself in the background as Tony searched for an answer.

"It's just a little weird is all, you don't know why she was there, and some people just talk to themselves." Peter said, swinging his legs out from underneath him and letting them hang over the edge of the counter.

Steve let out a sigh.

"He's right."

"Huh?" Tony, Clint and Peter asked.

"We saw her at one location, it has nothing to do with anything else we've seen. Maybe she saw Cassie and decided to help, maybe she was hiding inside, there could be any number of malicious or non malicious reasons for her to have gone inside." Steve explained.

"But the sweater!" Clint reminded Steve.

"_Maybe _she saw Cassie and decided to leave it. Who knows who she is personally, maybe she was worried about a police presence. We can't just go hunting some girl because we feel like she's important." Steve told them. "_If _something else happens, or comes up, to make any of you suspicious of her _then _we will continue to look into it."

"…Fine. You're right, I know, just…it feels off, doesn't it?" Tony asked, wanting someone to let him know he wasn't alone in the feeling.

"Definitely." Clint said, nodding. "What if…Thor said Loki was helping him with something, maybe Loki could be on call, if something were to come up again? If it is…_magic, _maybe he could help?"

Steve raised an eyebrow at Clint's suggestion but nodded; it was a good idea, if Loki agreed to help, of course.

"I'll try and contact Thor, see if he can ask Loki to stick around once they've finished their work." Steve said, then with a final nod, left the team to go have a shower.

The rest of the team dispersed, leaving to do their own small tasks; many of them also wanted a shower. They enjoyed three days of silence from the Avengers alarm; on the fourth day, it sounded at five past eight in the morning, waking up Tony and Bucky. The others were already awake and moving about the tower. Steve was the first one to the rooftop, Natasha and Clint quickly following behind him.

"Captain what's the word?" Tony asked, running to grab his suitcase from the kitchen so he could suit up.

"Really, really upset aliens." Peter's voice came through the communicator, which did the team did not expect. "Heaps of them too."

"Kid? Where are you?" Steve asked, looking out over the horizon from the roof of the tower.

"Downtown. Walking back from Ned's place, and well, there were suddenly…aliens. Where are you guys?"

"On our way, Tony where are you?" Steve asked, as the suit shot up from the side of the tower and hovered nearby. "Oh good, who are you taking?"

"I'll take you and Clint, get you both in so we have multiple angles covered. Nat, you taking the jet?" Tony asked, and nodded. The jet could be heard moving closer; Tony had activated the autopilot from his suit. Natasha could pilot the rest of the way there if she needed. "I've got the kid's location and sent it to the jet, aim for that area I suppose. Kid, you're our eye in the sky. What's going on?"

Tony grabbed Steve and Clint as carefully as he could before shooting off for the blip of Peter's marker; he had to make sure to watch his speed or risk injuring a team mate. Or killing them. Both could happen.

"There's…some sort of purple portal over the main street and they're coming from that, must be hundreds of them. They're using…spears? They also shoot acid." A pause, some shouting and a groan, then. "The aliens, not the spears."

"Glad you clarified." Clint said, before Tony dropped him just above a rooftop so he could move into an attack position. Steve was dropped onto the street, to help move civilians as well as keep the creatures from spreading further into the city. The aliens were…tall. Very tall, and skinny with white, almost blue skin that Steve was _sure _he could see through enough to see what looked like bones. He was glad Peter had warned them about the acid; that shit _hurt. _Steve narrowly avoided a huge ball of it that was spat at him when an alien somehow stretched their mouth open wide enough to eat what would be decently sized dog.

The rest of the team arrived and the battle continued. During the battle Steve noticed something that bothered him; they didn't seem to be winning. They weren't losing either but it definitely felt like they weren't making much of a dent in their numbers.

"Warrior friends, are you in need of me?" Thor's voice boomed out over the communicators.

Tony was not expecting Clint's voice; he also wasn't expecting it to be so desperate.

"We need Loki!"


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6**

"What _do_ you _want_?" Loki's voice came over Tony's suit; he must be in the tower. He was sneering at them; Tony could feel it. Be nice, Tony told himself. Clint must have a reason for saying they needed Loki. He fucking hoped so, anyway.

"What aliens can heal themselves?!" Clint's voice was a shout; he was frantic. Steve and Bucky could hear the footsteps behind his voice. He was running.

"A vast amount of them."

"Karen, can you send some footage to the tower?! Show Loki the aliens!" Peter was shouting as well. He swung down in time to knock an alien away from Natasha while she was busy fighting another two.

"How are so many following me?!" Clint shouted.

"Hawkeye, location?!" Steve asked. He was also shouting; also frantic.

"In a building! There's like ten of them behind me! The explosive arrows put a fantastic fucking hole in them but they fixed it right back up! They're made of fucking jell- fuck!" Tony checked his markers. Clint had stopped moving.

"On my way bird- hey, get the fuck off!" Tony shouted; two had leapt from a nearby bus roof and grabbed onto the suit.

"Barton, can you hear me?" Loki asked.

"Loud and clear." Clint answered back. He swallowed, staring at the aliens approaching him.

"Your…building has connected your camera feed to the screen in your living area. You are fighting Blancaris, or Blancari for multiple. They rely on light to see, as well as sound, they are virtually blind without them. The ones approaching you…they are elders; far stronger, far quicker."

"Well, I'm in a dead fucking end so…what now?"

"They're outside! How do we stop them?!" Tony shouted, finally ridding the last alien from his suit. "It's broad fucking daylight!"

"They choose their battles based on supposed…strength of their enemies. If they believe a creature too strong, they will leave. In their minds, none of us are strong enough for them to abandon their fight."

"You're Loki! Are you fucking kidding me?! Scare em off!" Clint shouted, pressing himself back against the wall.

"If I still had the chitauri…perhaps." Loki said before he appeared in the street wearing a neat black suit. He raised his hand and fired a wave of green energy at the aliens approaching Steve, before using his magic to throw a nearby car at a group that Natasha was busy with. "But I haven't, so I am afraid there aren't many options that would help you."

"What's one of them?" Bucky asked.

"Another one of those nuclear bombs might work." Loki said, resisting the urge to smirk.

"Uhh…guys?" Clint asked almost in a whisper.

"Hawkeye, what's going on?" Steve asked, regaining his footing now that the aliens were no longer attacking him.

"…Is there an eclipse right now?"

"…What?"

"I can't see." Clint said, staring at…nothing. "No honestly, it's just pitch black all of a sudden. I can't see anything."

"Still nice and bright out here!" Tony said, landing next to Steve with a loud clang. "Hey Steve, nice work."

"Loki gave us a hand, thank god." Steve said, taking a harsh breath. "Just in time too but, he was right. They don't seem to care."

Peter was mid fight with one of the aliens when it just…stopped. It lowered its spear and turned to stare at a building down the road, not moving its head. Peter wondered if it was even breathing.

"Hey guys what-" Clint was cut off by a voice he didn't expect.

"There are no men like me." Loki's voice boomed from the building, shocking the team, including Tony who had been flying towards the location of Clint's beeping marker. The air was silent, then was filled with a sudden violent screech, as well as an angry roar. Loki stared at the location the noise seemed to be coming from.

"No…" He whispered to himself.

"What is that horrific sound and why is it so familiar?" Tony asked.

"Why was Mister Loki talking…way over there?" Peter asked, landing from a flip on a car besides Natasha and Steve.

"That…is the sound of chitauri warriors." Loki said. "This isn't possible."

"I did NOT fly into a black hole for those bastards to get back out." Tony said, before realizing he had stopped moving. "Shit, Clint!"

"Uhh…guys?" Clint's voice was weak, but there.

"Hawkeye?!" Steve shouted.

"They…they left."

True enough, a group of the aliens emerged from the building and…seemed to leave. They flew back to the portal, followed by the rest of the army. Once the stragglers had vanished back into the swirling purple portal over the city, it shrunk onto itself and disappeared.

"Did we…did we win?" Clint asked, voice shaking. He leant back against the wall and slid to the ground, before breaking into relieved laughter. He ignored the fact he was shaking.

"I…I think so." Tony said, watching as Natasha entered the building to find Clint. "Only problem is, we have no idea how."

"Holy fucking shit…" Clint whispered, laughing softly to himself when Natasha found him. "We fucking did it."

"Civilians first, then we can go…de-alien." Steve said.

Tony's faceplate beeped as he was helping move a group. A square appeared on his HUD as he looked across the crowd; it focused on someone sitting off to the side, blood trickling down from a head wound.

[[FACE MATCH CONFIRMED]]

Tony blinked, staring at the words and trying to figure out what it meant.

"How far are we away from Scott's building?" He asked, making sure the voice wouldn't be projected out of the suit.

"It's only a few building down the road, the back of it anyway." Bucky told him, walking over to him from where he'd dropped down from a rooftop. "Why?"

"I have a hunch." He said, and dialed the number he was surprised was saved to his contacts. He'd acknowledge his guilt over that later.

"Lang speaking-"

"Where are you?" Tony asked.

"Oh um, Hi Tony…I'm in the warehouse."

"Check your security footage, see if anyone walked down the alley beside your house in the past…half hour or hour."

"Okay…give me a moment, I guess."

The wait felt like an hour on it's own.

"Two delivery guys and some young woman."

"Was she wearing glasses?"

"…Yes."

"Fuck. Thank you. Bye!" Tony hung up before shouting. "Rogers! We got a problem."


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7**

"Stark, what's going on?" Bucky asked when the team were finally all together back at the tower. Tony was standing in the kitchen, arms crossed in front of his chest as he paced around the room. Peter was sitting on the back of the couch, while the others were at the dining table.

"She was there."

"Who was- _no way_." Clint said, leaning back in his seat.

"I saw her sitting near the civilians after the portal closed. Looked like she was injured…which come to think of it, I totally forgot about til now. Shit."

"Are you _sure _it was her?" Steve asked.

"I forgot to turn off the face scan and my suit HUD identified her. Well, you know, not her name but her face. It's given me some details but…I haven't looked because, this is kind of weird. She was in the alleyway earlier, Lang checked his cameras."

"So, what do we do?" Clint asked.

"Maybe we follow her? Or get a tracker on her? It all feel so…weird, we have no proof as to her doing anything." Tony said, leaning against the kitchen counter and sighing.

"…We don't follow, we watch." Steve said. "Monitor the alley, if she enters any buildings nearby then we can investigate. If there is something sinister going on, she may not be a willing participant, so we can't risk harming her."

"We watch, with Loki. He might be able to sense…whatever it is that keeps…helping us? Now, how do we convince Loki _to _help?" Tony wondered aloud.

"No need." Loki said, alerting the team to the fact he was already in the room. "I am actually curious about what…has been assisting you. How many times has it happened?"

"From what we can tell…maybe three? Four?" Clint said, trying to recall the previous missions. "Who do we put on vantage?"

"I think Bucky." Tony said. "Sorry, been thinking about it. Since Clint was there in the building, it might be possibly that it would…recognize him somehow? And Peter found Cassie, so we don't know if he encountered whatever it is without realizing."

"I'll go in the morning." Bucky said. "Hopefully the ghost doesn't mind visitors."

Apparently, it didn't. This was mostly because the ghost was never around to mind the visitor. Bucky spent four days on a rooftop doing shifts to watch the alley.

"Does this ghost fucking exist or what?" He grumbled, packing up his gear to head home. "Stupid fucking ghos- what the fuck?"

Someone was in the alley. He could hear them talking…to someone. He moved back to position without his gear and watched carefully from the ledge; a young woman wearing a deep red cardigan was standing in the alley. Well truthfully, she was pacing, walking from one end to another, talking to herself.

"I can't believe you!" She half shouted, waving her arms in front of herself. "You are actively _trying _to get found! Stop getting involved. Stay home while I'm at work! Why can't you just do that?!"

Bucky quickly grabbed the camera Stark had given him when he noticed a logo on the girl's backpack. He zoomed in and took as many shots as he could, before pressing the button to alert Loki.

The god appeared behind Bucky after a few seconds and stepped to the edge of the roof, watching the girl as she walked back to the main street.

"She was talking a moment ago, telling someone off for getting involved." Bucky said, getting to his feet and watching after her.

"I don't feel any magic here. If there was something, it's gone now."

"I got some photos for Stark, see if he can figure out what the logo on her bag is."

Tony could.

"Barnes!" He shouted, finding Bucky and Steve sparring in the gym. "You brilliant piece of shit!"

"What the fuck? And thank you." Bucky said, ducking under Steve's fist and stepping back out of the sparring ring.

"It's a logo for some…society building? I have no idea BUT I checked their website and they have two restoration specialists listed." Tony said, grinning at the soldiers. "I had Pepper call them to arrange a meeting with both restorers…only I have no idea what the hell to talk to them about."

"What do they restore?" Steve asked.

"Books, apparently. They do a few different things but their main area of work is book restoration."

"Well, we'll have to look into books then…but…none of us can go see her, that won't help."

"So who goes?" Bucky asked.

"That's the issue, who do we send without raising suspicion?"


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter 8**

"Looking good, Agent." Tony said, seeing Phil Coulson step out of the elevator. "How was the tailor?"

"Chatty." Phil said, adjusting the cuffs on his new suit jacket. "Where am I going?"

"Across the road, it's all organised like we planned over the phone." Tony said. "So, good luck."

Phil nodded before grabbing the briefcase Tony had brought for him and leaving the hotel, darting across the road to the building that was pointed out to him. It was an old brick building nestled between two very modern office buildings. It was an old building, made of red bricks lightened over time by the elements. He stepped into the building and was welcomed by incredibly warm, dry air. A nice change from the rain that had begun that morning.

"Good morning, can I help you?" A woman with tidy blonde hair asked. She was sitting behind a reception desk to the side of the foyer.

"Morning, I've got a meeting arrange for this morning." Phil said, approaching the front desk. "It was made on my behalf by a colleague, I'm here to discuss some work for a client of mine. I was told they had made the appointment under the name Rogers."

"Oh yes, I saw your name in the book. I'll walk you up to the meeting room if you like; the appointment notes say it's your first time with us." She said, smiling as she rose form her seat and stepped out of from behind the desk. She led Phil up a winding stone staircase and directed him to a tidy room with two couches, and a fireplace that was tucked in the corner of the room. He appreciated that the fireplace was truly lit, filling the room with the crackling of burning logs.

"You'll be meeting with our director; David. He's on his way up now." She said, bidding Phil farewell before leaving the room. A man, who introduced himself as David, walked into the room a moment after she left. Another man joined them a moment later, sitting on the couch opposite Phil. David placed a pot of tea and a tray of cups on the table between the couches before sitting beside the new man.

"Thank you for being so quick Larry." David said, smiling at the other man.

"Not a problem, was just finishing up in the office when Sarah told me to come up. Nice to meet you." The man, Larry, said to Phil. Phil shook the hands of both men before leaning back a little on his couch, and scanning the room.

"I thought you had…two members of the restoration team." He said.

"Oh, yes, she's-" David was cut off by Larry.

"_She _is downstairs in the workroom; don't worry about her, she's only a trainee."

"She isn't listed as a trainee on the website."

"Website?" Larry asked; he was obviously taken aback.

"I'm here on behalf of my client, of course I checked your website. What if my client had wanted to come? I need to know who they'd be speaking to. I had them make sure she would be here as well."

"I'll go and fetch her, won't be a moment, gentlemen." David said, leaving the room. Phil sat in silence, not making eye contact with the other man. He'd brought a spare notebook, something to keep himself busy with. Clint had stuck some Sudoku pages into it for him. Phil looked up from his puzzles when two people joined the room; David was followed into the meeting room by a young girl with dark hair and glasses.

"Good morning." Phil said, smiling at the girl. She sat off to the side, on an armchair in the corner. Phil noticed she had brought a notebook and pen, when Larry had not. She gave a small nod but didn't say anything.

"So, how can we help you?" David asked, smiling at Phil across the small coffee table.

"I'm here on behalf of a client of mine. He is hoping to have a book restored to be given to his long term girlfriend, as an anniversary gift." Phil said. "I was told you could source books as well as restore them."

"Yes, we certainly can. Have you got a book in mind?" Larry asked.

"He is wanting a book called Jane's Garden. No other book; if it can not be sourced, there will be no job."

"An easy job, definitely. Is there any urgency to the book's finish date?"

Phil noticed the girl off to the side, staring at him. She opened her mouth to speak but closed it again without saying anything.

"Everything okay?" He asked, keeping his eyes on her. He noticed she glanced to the side, at the two men, then shook her head. "If you're sure-"

"It's no problem, ignore her."

"I don't appreciate being interrupted." Phil said, turning his attention back to the two men. "Hopefully you don't speak like that to all of your clients."

"O-oh, of course not-"

"So why did you speak like that to me?"

"Sir?" The girl's voice was soft. Phil turned his body to look at her. "It's…for an anniversary gift you said?"

"Mol-" Larry began, but stopped when Phil held a hand up to silence the man.

"That's correct."

"It's just…it's not a very _romantic _book…it is about a romance, but it's not a very happy one."

"…Do you know the book well?" Phil asked.

"Yes, it's a book that our sellers often have in stock…despite it being so rare. They're often trying to have us sell it to clients."

"What is the story about then?"

"It's…well it is about a romance, a woman who marries a man. The man's brother also loves the woman, and kills her to prevent her being with his brother."

The book had been a discovery of Loki's, who had told the team of the book and its title. He'd just said it was a romance and would fit their story of the gift from Thor to Jane.

"…I see. My client did not mention that. I wonder if perhaps he isn't aware. Though frankly, I feel like his partner wouldn't be bothered by it. The rarer the better."

"Oh, it's quite a rare book. Not many copies were ever printed." She said, taking down some notes in her book.

"We will go ahead with the job then." Phil said, turning to face the men as the lights began to flicker.

"Molly, go check the power." Larry said. She rose from her chair without looking at them and left the room. Phil slid a hand into his jacket pocket as he stood up from his seat. He pressed the small alert button he'd been given, letting Loki know the girl was moving on her own. He'd been asked to keep an eye on the lights.

"Well then gentlemen, I will have my assistant pass the job information to you so that the young lady may begin work."


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter 9**

Loki appeared in the basement of the building, an area he discovered was used for storage. He stepped out from behind the large stack of paintings he'd appeared behind, and moved further into the basement. He was out in the open when he heard a door open and slam shut somewhere. He moved quickly to find somewhere to hide, and made himself invisible for an extra layer of protection.

"Knock it off!" A feminine voice came into the dark basement. Loki wondered why his eyes hadn't adjusted to the darkness yet. "I can't deal with you this morning."

"_I can not help it." _The second voice – a masculine one – caught Loki off guard. He couldn't see anyone that she would be speaking to. No one had been in the basement when he walked around only moments ago. "_I hate how he speaks to you._"

"I'm already annoyed with you, so knock it off." The girl's voice came again; Loki could see her, just, she was sitting at the bottom of the staircase that went up to the basement door.

"_I worry, that is all._"

"Your worrying is going to get us into trouble. I have to go back, so just…behave. Go home or something, go chat to the next door cat, whatever."

She sighed as stood up from her seat before climbing back up the staircase and leaving through the door. Loki followed, keeping himself invisible. She was standing outside the door to the meeting room, speaking with a man. Loki decided to watch them talk.

"He wants you to do the job for his client." The man was saying to her. "God knows why, I tried to tell him you only did more…beginner projects but he was adamant you do the work."

"I'll call some of our sellers-"

"_No._ You will do your projects and I will do this job. The client must be important if he has multiple people arranging his meetings for him, we can't afford the risk of you screwing up the work. Just go do your children's books." He said before turning and leaving down a nearby staircase. She didn't seem to react to his words; not how Loki would have expected, at least. She simply watched him leave, her face showing no emotion Loki could place. There was a crash of thunder outside, then lightning, followed by the hallway lights flickering.

The lights went off, sending the hallway into sudden darkness. The air was now _very _cold, far colder than it should be with a simple thunder storm. Loki heard a faint "Knock it off" before she went down the same flight of stairs as the man had. The hallway remained dark and quiet for a moment, before being flooded with light again. Loki stared at one of the ceiling lights for a second before turning around to head back to the basement when he noticed a shadow on the wall. It was the figure of a person, possibly male, with a slim figure. They were standing straight and stiff, on the wall at the very end of the hallway.

Loki watched as the figure seemed to…shrink. It melted down the wall and crept behind a frame hanging on the wall. Loki walked back into the basement, thinking over what he had seen before travelling back to the tower.

"Holy- Loki!" Tony shouted, jumping back into the kitchen counter when Loki suddenly appeared in the lounge. "Some warning please?! Why do you look so…terribly concerned?"

"I believe I have an idea of what you have been dealing with."


	10. Chapter 10

**Chapter 10 **

Tony immediately had Friday page for the others to get to the lounge; _now._ While they waited for the others to join them, Tony made himself a cup of coffee while Loki paced.

"Stark, what do you want?" Bucky asked as he stepped out the elevator with Nat and Steve. Clint dropped down from the vent grate over the lounge, and Bruce came out from his bedroom.

"Wow, that was…quick." Tony said, glancing at Loki; the dark haired god was frowning.

"Why does Loki look _pissed?" _Clint asked, dropping onto a couch and relaxing into the cushions. "Is Coulson coming as well?"

"Yes." Phil said, stepping out of the elevator when the doors reopened. They hadn't even noticed it closing after the others had stepped out. Everyone settled on a couch or armchair; Peter was on the ceiling, laying against it and staring down at the others. It simply looked as if he'd been laying down on the ground, one leg folded over the over, and flipped upside down.

"So Rudolph, what are we dealing with?" Tony asked, as Friday flicked on the TV to show the footage Loki had captured on the small camera attached to his suit jacket.

"So…she's talking to herself- who was that?" Clint asked, sitting up a little straighter.

"That man's name is Larry, he's the other restoration artist. I didn't like him much." Coulson said when the footage showed him talking to the girl.

"What the sweet fuck is that?" Tony asked when he saw the shadow, and the fact there was nobody besides Loki in the hallway. "Did it just…melt?"

"That, is a shadow." Loki said when the footage ended. Everyone turned to look at him.

"Well I can see _that." _Tony said, rolling his eyes.

"No, not a regular shadow, like what happens when light is blocked from an area. That is…what's the best way to explain it…?" Loki asked himself, thinking for a moment. "Imagine…imagine something like the nuclear rectors you have here on earth."

"Okay…" Bruce said, leaning forward to watch Loki as the man spoke.

"A huge source of relatively _safe _energy creation. Which has the potential to be _incredibly _dangerous."

"…Like Chernobyl?" Clint asked.

"Yes, I believe that was the name in the documentary. Yes, imagine something like that. A huge source of power, which under normal circumstances is relatively safe but given the chance for disaster…I've seen the images from the explosion. A man turned into a mark on the floor by the power of that incident. A human shaped stain on the concrete."

"Yeah, I know what you mean." Tony said. "I can't think of the name of it but yes, I know what you're talking about."

"This is…somewhat similar, only with magical energy." Loki said, ignoring the tiny scoff that came from Clint. "A huge amount of magical energy which is allowed to, or simply manages to fail, explodes and kills somebody. _That _shadow is what is left behind. The shadow, or stain, of someone who was alive."

"Okay-" Tony was cut off by Loki.

"Only, they still are. To a point."

There was silence for a moment. It was interrupted by Bucky.

"_That _is a living thing?"

"To a _point. _It is sentient yes, without any form of a true physical body. Shadows are incredibly smart, as they tend to be the remains of powerful wizards and other magic users; the most common being those attempting necromancy."

"I'm going to pretend you didn't say that last part." Tony said, eyes wide. "So, how do we…deal with it?"

"That is the issue. Shadows have never been studied, or ever really encountered. They are a rumored creature, much like your bigfoot or loch ness monster. The…interesting thing is how it almost seems angered by others being…nasty to the girl."

"Why would some kind of sentient…shadow? Why would it care?"

"Stories tell of the shadows latching to hosts, someone they can use to hopefully control, to complete goals that require a physical body. The stories never mention the hosts scolding the shadow for misbehavior." Loki said, smirking just a little. "A shadow's host is supposedly manipulated by the creature into marking themselves with powerful runes which would allow the shadow to take over their body totally."

"She looks fucking exhausted." Bucky said suddenly. "Her eyes, she never properly focuses on anything."

"I noticed it as well. She barely had any noticeable reaction to…Larry? How he spoke to her. Even if she was used to it, you'd expect an eye roll or…something." Bruce said.

"Maybe we just keep an eye on things?" Steve suggested. "Not so much her as much as…the building itself, I suppose. If she's there the majority if the time, it probably is as well. Remember, we have no idea how willing she is in this. Don't lose focus; she might need saving as well."


	11. Chapter 11

**Chapter 11 **

Life carried on for the team; more battles, more aliens, a couple of science mishaps that they had to go clean up. Scott Lang was not the cause of any of them, he even helped clean some up. He got some himself some brownie points with Tony Stark for that.

Peter came to the tower after school, in an oddly good mood. Tony noticed the bruise forming on Peter's eye, as did Steve and Natasha.

"Rough day?" Tony asked. Peter shrugged, busying himself with making drinks for the team while they got themselves out of their uniforms. Everyone eventually shuffled back into the lounge for a drink and some biscuits May had sent along with Peter.

"So, what happened today?" Tony asked, hoping he'd get an actual answer. He had a good idea what it would be.

"Busy, a few tests, got an internship."

"You always have tests." Bucky said, accepting another biscuit from the box Natasha held out to him. "Wait, don't you already have an internship?"

"Yes he does!" Tony shouted. "Peter, what the hell?!"

"Mister Stark-" Peter tried, but Tony was on a roll.

"Is it money? I keep offering you money and you won't take it! Do you need it for school points? It should count. I'll make it count. Do you not like us? Is it Clint? Bucky? I'll get rid of them."

"Mister Stark!" Peter shouted. Tony's mouth opened to continue but closed again without him making a sound. "Thank you. Would you just read the letter before you end of firing your whole team? Which I'm not sure you _can _actually do."

Peter reached over to his backpack and pulled out a folded up piece of paper.

"Oh god, Clint you read it. It's a resignation letter, I know it." Tony moaned. Peter rolled his eyes and let Clint take the letter, which he read aloud to the group.

"Dear Mister Parker, it is with great pleasure – wow weird wording much? – great pleasure that we can inform you that you have been selected as this year's intern at the Cultural Society of New York. Further details follow blah blah blah…"

"…Where did Coulson go for that meeting with the book lady?" Tony asked in an excited whisper.

"The Cultural Society of New York." Bucky answered, smirking.

"Holy shit kid!" Tony shouted, grinning. "That's gonna make keeping an eye of ol' shadow face a lot easier."

Peter shook his head but smiled.

"I thought so. You didn't need to panic so much."

"You got an internship!"

"Because my Stark one doesn't count for school credit, this one will."

"When do you start?"

"Next week. I hope I can get some homework done before the internship starts."

Luckily, the weekend was quiet. Peter did end up being able to get a fair bit of school work done, so he didn't have to worry about falling behind during the next week. He went to visit Ned and MJ over the weekend, so they could get some work done together.

"Good morning! Did you need any help?" The girl at the front desk asked him.

"Oh, morning. I'm Peter Parker-"

"Oh the new intern! Well, school intern. Two weeks, right? I was surprised we ended up with someone so young, usually we don't get any application outside of the art colleges." She said, beaming at him. She tidied her desk quickly before stepping out from it to shake his hand.

"Oh, yeah." He said. She was good, he thought. "My other internship is outside of school, so I needed this one for credit."

"Our director mentioned you already had an internship; you're certainly a high achiever. Follow me, we can leave your backpack in the staff room and I'll take you to meet the people you'll be working with."

They started with a quick tour, before leaving Peter's bag in the small staff room. He was quietly glad for his spidey powers; without them, he'd have been exhausted after all the stairs in the building. He was confused as to how the receptionist, Sarah, was able to just…keep going, without pausing for a rest. Surely her legs hurt.

She knocked on a door on one the lower floor, down a hall from the reception area and main foyer. There was a loud "What?" from behind the door.

"Be polite, you have a visitor." She said, pushing the door open. "Good morning."

"What did you want? Who's that?" Larry asked; Peter immediately disliked Larry. He reminded him of the stuffy businessmen that always tried to talk Tony into going back into the weapons business.

"This is Peter; he's our intern for this year. He'll be here for the next two weeks, not including the weekends."

"Another kid who decided weekends are too important for work? The usual." He said. Peter noticed off to the side of the room, there was a young lady with her back hunched over a work table.

"Peter is doing our internship alongside his pre-existing intern program, his weekends will be spent there. Now, Peter, you'll spend two days working with Larry, and two with Molly. Then you'll chat to me and David, the director, and pick who you'd like to spend the remainder of your internship with. You'll be with Larry first."

Sarah gave her goodbyes to the group before leaving to go back to her station.

"Well, you're used to interning I suppose. You'll be good at coffee runs I suppose."

"Oh, I-"

"Large skinny latte with hazelnut syrup. There's a coffee shop next door. Tell them it's for Larry and they can put it on the company tab." He said, looking back down at the newspaper spread out on his table. There was a sudden scraping of wood on wood, when the girl pushed her chair back and got up.

"Right. Coffee. Sure." Peter said, turning and leaving the workroom to…go find a coffee shop.

Tony might be a little difficult at times but Peter's Stark Industries internship was _way_ more fun.


	12. Chapter 12

**Chapter 12 **

Peter was waiting in line at the coffee shop next door to the Cultural Society building, waiting to order.

"Oh, morning Molly. How are you?" The man at the register asked when he saw Peter. Peter hadn't noticed that the person standing beside him was the girl from the book place. He figured it was another customer who didn't understand personal space.

He supposed she could still be one of them.

"Good. Got an intern for a couple of weeks. My normal, a latte for Larry and…something for the kid." She said, glancing at him for a moment before looking back at the cashier.

"Oh. Oh! Sorry. Just a hot chocolate please…with caramel if that's okay?"

"No worries you two, I'll get it ready for you. Company account?"

"Yes please." She said, nudging Peter a little and steering him to an empty table at the side, near the huge windows that made up the front of the coffee shop.

"You didn't ask for his syru-"

"Larry hates coffee syrups. He told you to get it so he could tell you off for getting the wrong drink, and make you come get a new one."

"Huh. That sounds…exhausting. I'm glad my other internship is less…errand boy-esque."

"Where do you intern?" She asked. Someone came over with a cardboard tray holding their cups. Peter noticed that two of the cardboard cups were made of plain brown paper, while one was a vibrant purple.

"Oh- um, I've been an intern at Stark Industries for awhile." He said, following her back out to the street.

"Huh. Must be a different atmosphere."

"Yeah. My Stark one doesn't count for school credit so, they gave me this one."

She didn't say anything to that, simply headed back to the workroom where Larry was still reading his newspaper. She placed one of the cups in front of him, gave one to Peter and took the purple one back to her station; the cup tray was thrown into a bin on her way over.

Peter watched Larry take a sip of his coffee. The man paused, frowning at the drink.

"Right then, let's get you to work."

Larry was…not much fun to work with. The majority of the time was Larry talking about how much better he was then everyone else at the company, and telling Peter that he was an 'average at best intern'. Peter was glad Tony would never hear about that comment; he didn't want to risk Tony Stark going iron Man on some book repair guy.

Peter also spent a lot of time moving boxes of equipment around the small workroom. He was pretty sure it was so Larry wouldn't have to spend any more time with Peter than he physically had to.

"Morning Peter, how was Larry?" Sarah asked, greeting Peter on his third day.

"Oh, he was fine. Am I with Molly now?"

"Sure are! She's in the workroom. She's about to go get some supplies from downstairs so I'm sure she'll be glad for some extra lifting power."

Peter found Molly leaving the workroom.

"Oh Peter, are you able to come downstairs?" She asked, closing the door behind her.

"Sure am, I'm with you today."

"Ah, good."

Peter followed her upstairs, then down a hall then…he recognized the door; it was from Loki's footage. She pushed the door open and lead him down to what they had thought to be a basement. It actually ended up being on the same level as the foyer area.

"Your basement's in a…weird spot."

"Whole building is like this, rooms in places that make no sense. We aren't allowed to demolish walls to make a new doorway. Old building rules." She said, stepping down the stairs. Peter was a little worried about tripping down the stairs; it was dark.

"Not a fan of the dark?" She asked suddenly.

"Huh? Uh…"

"Sarah doesn't like coming down here either. There's a light switch down here, won't be a moment." She said. They reached the floor and true to her word, there was a switch. She reached out and flicked it on, turning on the bulb hanging from the…'basement' ceiling. It didn't do much but was enough to help Peter feel a little less claustrophobic. It felt a little too…collapsed building in the dark.

"I try to keep it tidy down here but, I hope you're not scared of spiders."


	13. Chapter 13

**Chapter 13 **

Molly was way more fun to work with then Larry was. Molly was also apparently _not _a fan of spiders. Peter's job was to check over the boxes she'd point out to him. She had no issues moving them, only issues with the risk of coming across a spider on the boxes. Once Peter had cleared a box as 'spider free' Molly would help move it near the stairs. They only ended up needing five boxes, none of which were very heavy. Molly was adamant that she would help Peter with the boxes, so there was less risk of him hurting himself moving them.

"I didn't think I looked _that _weak." Peter joked once the last box was in the workshop.

"It wouldn't look very good for us if an intern was injured on shift. I'm not sure how Stark Industries would feel about us injuring one of their interns either." She explained, taking a sip of her coffee which must be stone cold by now. She'd already had the cup at her station when they brought the first box up. It was a cardboard cup again, only it was a soft blue this time.

"…Do you have your own special cups?" Peter asked, staring at the cup in her hand. She glanced own at it.

"They got a bunch of coloured cups for some promotion awhile ago. The manager over ordered, so they had heaps left. I asked them about the cups one day because I liked the yellow ones. Since then they've always done mine in the coloured cups."

"Wow, that must have really over ordered. How long have they been doing it for?"

"Two years or so." She said, placing the cup back on the work bench.

"That's… wow, that's dedication."

"It is. I appreciate it. Okay, now to figure out to get you to do." She said to herself more than to Peter. "I need to do ink mixes…and some page splitting…Wednesdays are usually my restock and reset day. The worst day of the week. Honestly."

"I can just watch you? Promise not to meddle."

"Good idea. I don't like meddling."

She set up her work station so that she could mix inks, with a chair beside hers for Peter. The ink mixing was…sort of interesting, mostly pretty dull. It was basically following a recipe that was scrawled on a piece of paper on the wall above her desk. They sat together without speaking while Peter watched her work; she sung to herself while she worked. Peter didn't recognize any of the songs but he enjoyed it. The door opened after they'd been working for almost two hours. Larry came in with two coffee cups and handed one to Peter before moving to his desk and sitting down.

"You forgot someone." Peter said. She hadn't even seemed to notice that Larry had forgotten her. "They must've just forgotten her drink. Don't worry, I'll run next door and get it."

"What?" Larry asked. Peter was quick to hop out of his seat and head out to the coffee shop.

"Heya kid, on your own today?" The cashier asked. He smiled at Peter; Peter liked the cashier. He wondered if the guy had forgotten the drink, though he suspected one had never been ordered.

"Yeah. Could I grab a coffee for…Molly? The book lady. She's stuck in a meeting. Have you got a yellow cup?"

The man laughed and nodded at Peter.

"Course kid. She tell you about the cups? She came in super early this morning, I didn't end up seeing her."

"I asked her about them."

"You know she doesn't even like yellow that much? It's just the closest we have to orange. Which is why I didn't tell her we got orange ones the other day for a function. Managed to save one, so she could have it for her birthday coffee. Hang on."

The man passed the order to the barista. The coffee didn't take long and soon Peter was walking back to the workroom with a bright orange cardboard cup, as well as a paper bag with two chocolate-pretzel cookies in it.

"I'm back!" Peter announced, moving to his seat and sitting down besides Molly again. He placed the cup down near her hand and watched her reach for it. She stopped before grabbing the cup.

"It's orange."

Larry had gone again, his newspaper and coffee cup missing as well.

"Yeah?"

"They don't have orange ones."

"He said he saved you one because they had some for a function. Said it was for your birthday coffee. Gave me some biscuits as well."

"…Huh." Is all she said before picking up the cup, sipping on the coffee while she wrote down notes in a workbook.

"…Is today your birthday?"

"Yes."

"Oh. Nobody else mentioned it."

"Because they don't know."

They fell into silence but Peter was sure he could hear…something scratching in the background. He wasn't keen on finding whatever it was.


	14. Chapter 14

**Chapter 14 **

"Peter, what is that?" Tony asked, noticing the gift bag on the kitchen counter.

"A gift bag?"

"For what?"

"A gift?"

"…Why?"

"It's an occasion that calls for a gift to be given."

"…I fucking hate when you get in these moods. Who is the gift for and why is the bag bright fucking orange?"

"She likes the colour orange."

"Who does?!"

"Molly."

"Molly?! Wait, I know that name. Why do I know that name?"

"Book lady. Her name is Molly; you saw it on the website."

"Oh, okay."

Tony accepted the cup of coffee from Peter and let out a hard breath.

"Sorry kid, I'm just in a mood this morning. Bad night sleep."

"Friday mentioned it last night, not the only one who had a bad sleep." Peter said, shrugging his bag onto his shoulders. "It was her birthday last Wednesday, so I decided to get her something."

"…Why so late?"

"I couldn't decide what to get her. I got the idea the other day; hopefully she likes it. I got that energy reader from the lab too." Peter said, patting his jeans pocket. "I saw your note on the fridge. See you later, Mister Stark."

Tony waved a weak, exhausted, goodbye to Peter and settled on the couch with his coffee. Peter walked into the workroom to find Larry and Molly arguing. It was mostly Larry yelling, and Molly staring at her work and not reacting to him in any way.

"I told you not to go into the storage room! You need supplies, you come to me. What the hell have you got that kid doing anyway? I don't care if he picked you as his…guide or whatever, he'll be working with me for the rest of his internship. I'll speak to David and fix the issue; no point having the kid waste his time learning from a trainee."

Larry turned and left the room, shoving past Peter on his way out. Peter was careful to move the bag out of the way, not wanting the gift to be crushed by the man who didn't seem to notice Peter in the doorway. Peter could hear that scratching again; something against the wood, down low beneath the tables and shelves. Something like rats scratching at the walls. Molly was staring at the wall in front of her, leaning back in her chair.

"Has he always been a jerk?" Peter asked. She jumped in her seat, Peter's voice startling her. She turned her head to look at him; she looked as neutral as ever.

"It's not good to talk about co-workers." She said, before turning back to her work.

"He's not my co-worker and I think he's a jerk. I'm not worried about him hearing it. Oh um, sorry it's late but…I got you a birthday present."

The scratching noise stopped.

"A what?"

"I know it's late but…I thought I should get you something. You mentioned it last week. You know, the sweater you lost." Peter put the bag on the seat beside Molly and decided not to mention it. He said something about going to see if Sarah wanted a coffee, he was going to go next door. Be right back. He ignored the scratching noise that seemed to follow him to the front door.

The lights were flickering when Peter came back. The foyer lights, the hallway lights and…the lights in the workroom were totally off. Great. Peter's phone rang in his pocket. He answered it in the workroom, since nobody seemed to be in there anymore.

"Hello?"

"Do you not look at your caller I.D?" Tony asked. "Not the point. Where are you?"

"At the Society place, all the lights are…off or flickering."

"No wonder. The energy readings are…they're nuts. Are you okay? What's going on?"

"I'm fine- hang on someone's coming in, I'll call you back." Peter said quietly before ending the call.

"Peter? Oh good." It was Molly's voice. "The power went off again, I forgot you'd gone next door and you weren't there for headcount. David was a little worried. Very wor- what was that?"

The crashing noise had come from outside, in the street. They heard more crashing; the glass windows of one of the office building next door had shattered. Peter's phone rang again. It answered itself; Tony's emergency protocol.

"Kid?!" Tony's voice came through the phone when Peter lifted it to his ear. He was following Molly out to the street; where the hell was she going?

"I'm here! What's going on?" Peter asked, leaving the building and finding the sidewalk covered in glass. His body tingled; his spidey senses had gone into overdrive. Before he could move himself, someone shoved him to the side as a panel of glass fell where he had been standing.

He looked over to see Molly, staring at him with wide eyes then her eyes shifted, looking over his shoulder.

She stared at something behind him; the Iron Man suit had landed. Well, it had crashed.


	15. Chapter 15

**Chapter 15 **

"I'm fine!" Tony argued with Steve, who was helping him to his feet.

"You didn't look fine a second ago." Peter said; he'd managed to find them after shoving his way through the rushing crowd.

"Peter! You okay?" Tony asked. Steve fought the man to keep him still. "Rogers stop it! I'm a grown man. I can stand up by myself."

"…Should I let go then?"

"…Not yet."

"I'm fine Mister Stark, the building wasn't damaged, just the offices either side. Well, their windows at least. Sorry I hung up on you earlier."

"It's fine. Everything okay?"

"Yeah…I'll tell you at the tower. Might be good for the team to hear it. I'm gonna go back, make sure everyone is okay. Molly came outside with me…and I just realized I sort of ran off on her."

Molly was in the foyer talking to Sarah; both looked at him as he walked over to them; Sarah visible relaxed upon seeing him.

"Oh Peter! You're okay, thank goodness." Sarah said; she sounded like she'd been worrying. "That was…I'm glad everyone's okay, my heart needs a break."

"David's been given permission to close early for the day. Sorry Peter, I know you spent time getting here." Molly told him.

"Oh, that's alright. I'll get some stuff for school finished." Peter said, smiling at the two women. He said a goodbye and headed off, making sure to grab his bag before he left. May was home already when he walked into their apartment. She immediately raced over and hugged him; she'd heard about what had happened earlier, and knew it had been close to the Cultural Society building. He let Tony know he'd be over the next day; he was going to hang out with May for a bit so that she could relax. They ended up making lunch together and spent the afternoon watching movies.

Peter made stir fry for dinner to use up the vegetables in the fridge; May was the one who suggested going to get dessert.

"We can walk to that convenience store. I feel like ice-cream." She told him, so they bundled up in their warm clothes and headed out; it had started raining earlier. It was a soft rain which was May's favourite weather. The rain wasn't hard but there was enough of it that she could smell it in the air. It was on the walk back when Peter heard someone talk.

"They're no issue; look at them. We follow them, get money and fuck off. Stop your worrying." A male voice hissed from behind them. "Hand it here; fuck you're useless."

"Let's take the shortcut, I'm sick of the rain." Peter said. They hurried a little bit and stepped into a side alley which would lead through a small park near their apartment. He'd forgotten about the energy sensor in his pocket; thank god. It was still there.

_Squeeze for five seconds to activate emergency alert. Will vibrate when active. Device will notify nearest Avenger or Avenger third party of your location. _

Peter remembered the note that had been left with the device in the lab; that part had stuck out. He silently thanked the universe that Mister Stark was so paranoid as he squeezed the device and held it until it vibrated in his hand. He hoped it was quick.

A shot rang out behind them; the two of them stopped, May stumbling from stopping so suddenly. Peter cursed himself for stopping, the two men were close to them now.

"Wallets, then we fuck off." One of them, the shorter of the two, told them. He could tell May was shaking behind him. What could he do? He couldn't fight them, May was there and they could see his face. "I fucking told you! Hurry up!"

Another shot rang out in the air but this time it wasn't from the man's gun, which was pointed at Peter and May. The noise came from behind the two men, back down the alley which looked…darker than it had been before.


	16. Chapter 16

**Chapter 16**

"What the fuck was that?" The man with the gun snarled. "Go have a look."

"Why do I have to?!"

"Because _I _have the gun, you fucking moron."

The other man huffed but turned and walked back towards the dark alleyway. As he got closer, ready to step into the darkness, the air shook with the sounds of explosions. Both men, as well as Peter and May, jumped at the sudden noises. The noises helped distract the two men; they didn't feel the prickling on their skin as the air filled with static electricity.

Peter noticed the sensation on his skin and stepped in front of May, just before there was a sudden flash of blue light and a crashing sound on the ground in front of him; Thor had landed.

"Thor?!" Peter shouted. The two men spun back to see the god, who was staring at them as he stood up from the crouched position he'd landed in. He noticed the gun in the man's hand and narrowed his eyes at the weapon.

"Are you gentlemen causing an issue for my friend here?" Thor asked, straightening out his posture. "I wouldn't think so, as it would be a grave mistake on your behalf."

The two men responded by simply turning and fleeing back through the dark alleyway. Thor laughed at the two men, pleased by their reaction to his appearance.

"Come young Peter, I shall escort you home." Thor said, smiling at Peter and his aunt. He did escort them home, and only left after being assured multiple times that Peter and May would be okay now that they were home. Neither of them ended up having any ice-cream in the end; the mood was gone. Peter felt cold even after a hot shower and despite the numerous layers he wore to bed, the cold still seemed to dig into his bones.

The cold followed him to the cultural society building and into the workroom, where he sat shivering beside Larry. Sarah burst into the room suddenly, interrupting Larry telling Peter off for daring to be cold.

"Larry, upstairs, now." She said; it was an order. Larry just rolled his eyes and returned to his newspaper. "Larry this client is _not _waiting for you. Get upstairs while I call Molly. She wasn't meant to be in today, she asked for the day off weeks ago! I do not need this!"

"Don't bother. I'll go sort the client out, you don't need her." Larry said, closing the newspaper and grabbing his cup of coffee. "Come on kid, you can watch me work with a client. Good experience."

Peter grumbled quietly and followed Larry upstairs to the same room he'd spoken to Coulson. Upstairs felt even colder, and didn't seem to be helped by the fireplace in the meeting room where Tony was sitting, sprawled over a couch.

"Peter!" Tony said cheerfully, seeing his intern beside Larry.

"Uh…hi, Mister Stark. What…are you doing here?" Peter asked, eyebrows pressed together. What the hell was Tony doing?

"Good Morning Mister Stark. Apologies on being late, we had no idea you were coming in." Larry said, smiling at Tony as he sat on the couch opposite the other man.

"No drama, we just need to wait for your other restoration artist, then we can get started! Ooh, thank you." Tony said, taking a mug of coffee from David who had entered the room.

"Of course Mister Stark, Molly is on her way now." David said, sitting beside Larry. Tony sat up and patted the couch beside him. Peter rolled his eyes but sat next to the man, who grinned at him once he was sitting down. Molly joined them only a few minutes later, stepping into the room and seeing Tony. Her eyes grew wide when she noticed the man, then returned to normal; completely neutral. The bags under her eyes were more obvious than usual.

"Ah! You must be Molly." Tony said, smiling at her. "Oh, hang on."

Tony handed his coffee to Peter so he could get up and move an armchair over for Molly. He quickly got back onto the couch and settled next to Peter. Molly sat on the armchair, perched on the front edge of the seat.

"Great! Now we can start." Tony said, smiling at the group.

"Fantastic. So, what can we do for you Mister Stark?" Larry asked. Tony hated the man's smile; it was a salesman smile. Fake and too toothy. There were no crinkles near hise yes either.

"Something book related!" he said cheerfully. "I'll be honest, I'm a little out of my depth. I know computers, techy stuff you know. I can do maths quite well too-"

"Mister Stark." Molly said, quietly. "I don't mean to be rude-"

"Molly…" Larry warned. Molly didn't look at him.

"Most people are rude to me on purpose so, you're doing better than them! Go ahead."

"Do you know…anything about what we do? What made you come to us?"

"Well, Miss Molly. You did."


	17. Chapter 17

**Chapter 17**

Molly said "Me?" at the same time Larry asked "Her?".

"Yep!" Tony confirmed. "You did some work for a…I'd say a good colleague of mine but I don't actually like him very much at all. Mister Sebastian Oaks. Who I am here on the behalf of. He doesn't exactly know I'm here though."

Molly nodded at the name; she remembered the project and the nasty man who had commissioned it.

"Mister Oaks has said he won't work with you anymore. Why is that?" Tony asked, grinning.

"I…feel like you know the answer already, Mister Stark." Larry said, glaring at Molly. She was staring at her hands, not looking up from where they were sitting in her lap.

"Proper apologies have already been made by the organization and-" Tony cut off David.

"Were they made by her?" Tony asked, annoyed that neither of the men would let her talk.

"Mister Stark, if you are here on behalf of Mister Oaks, what is the matter of your visit?"

"Oh! Well, see, Stark Industries is hosting a charity dinner very soon and since it involves an auction, we need items to auction off. I was asked by Mister Oaks if I knew anything that would be a good contribution. I told him I would arrange it and he pay for the item, which will then be auctioned off."

"And…you'd like a book?" Larry asked.

"I would! Done, by Molly." Tony said, smirking. Molly looked up from her hands, staring at Tony with wide eyes again.

"What?!" Larry shouted. "Her?!"

"I _really _don't like Sebastian Oaks. I'd like Molly to select a book of her own choice, restore it to the point she is happy with and I'll have someone pick it up before the dinner. Only issue is the time frame…the dinner is in two weeks-"

"I can do that." Molly said, cutting Tony off. "Are there any restrictions on what type of book?"

"Whatever you like! Preferably something that would you know, make some money but it's not necessary. Anyway, I should head off before I have to cancel anymore meetings. Today was a little…not very well planned. See you on the weekend kid." Tony said, patting Peter on the shoulder before letting David walk him downstairs and back to his car outside. Larry turned to speak to Molly but she was already gone, the door closing after her.

She didn't join them again the workroom that day; Peter left after his day of interning without seeing her after the meeting. He headed to the Tower once he was finished. It had been his last day and he was a little…upset he hadn't gotten to say goodbye to Molly. She was quiet but she'd been nice to him during his time there.

"Have we found anything? Oh hey Peter, Steve's sorting out dinner for everyone and I said you'd join. Nothing, still? Dammit." Tony said, without looking away the the TV screen in the lab.

"Uhh…thanks for the notice. What are you up to?"

"That attack near your internship, your worser of the two internships by the way, was some kind of…force explosion and we think it's been triggered by a frequency of some sort. Just can't find one to follow. I've had Friday cycling through whatever we can find but I think we're going to have to do an all over blanket scan of all the frequencies we can detect. Which is…a lot."

"Sounds like an after dinner problem." Peter said. Tony nodded and smiled tiredly at Peter, walking upstairs with the kid to go have dinner with the team. Peter was getting ready for bed when the power went off, sending the tower into darkness for a moment. It didn't take more than a few seconds for the lights to come back on, Friday having restored the power automatically. Peter fell asleep in his bed at the tower feeling warmer than he had all day.

Tony fell asleep at his worktable in the lab.

"Frequency Cycle Six Complete. Cycle Seven beginning." Friday announced, before falling quiet again. The silence was broken by an odd voice, something masculine that seemed to echo.

"_Such a shame…if only I could ask them to lower the lights…such bright lights here. I should not have stuck to the Peter boy so well, I seem to be stuck in this tower now… Would it be possible for them to be lower? I wonder…"_

"Of course." Friday answered, lowering the brightness of the lab. Tony stirred, sitting up in his seat.

"Friday what the hell? I was working."

"I was asked if the lights could be dimmed."

"And how did I ask you to do that when I was…working?"

"You did not."

Tony blinked; Friday was losing it. Could AI systems go senile? His probably could.

"_Ah, so the female voice can hear me…I wonder who she is."_ The male voice echoed about the room, startling Tony into falling off of his stool and landing on the cold tiled ground in a heap.

"F-Friday! Alert the team, whoever is awake! Wake someone up!" Tony shouted, scrambling to his feet. Who was in his tower?


	18. Chapter 18

**Chapter 18**

"Tony!" Steve shouted, stepping into the lab, shield in hand. "What happened?"

"Someone broke into my tower! Our tow- someone's in here!"

The tower had been in darkness on his way to the lab, only for a moment; the storm outside was shorting out power all over the city. Luckily the tower had numerous generators.

Steve scanned the room but could only see Tony inside the lab. He did a quick walk through of the small lab room but returned to Tony's side to help the man into a chair in the corner of the room. Thor stepped into the room, followed by Loki.

"Friend Stark! We did not realize Rogers had already come down to assist you. Are you alright?" Thor asked.

"Perhaps he simply had a bad dream. Brother, can I go back to sleep now?" Loki asked, frowning at Tony who looked…unwell. His skin was pale with fright. Loki had seen the same look on many people before; some of them from his own doing.

"Hey Thor, thanks for coming down. I'm sure what's going on but Tony said someone's broken into the tower." Steve explained, keeping a hand on Tony's shoulder. He knew the physical contact could help ground Tony at times. The same thing worked on Bucky as well. Sometimes.

"I heard them! It…I heard a man talking about a female voice? Oh, Friday, I guess…and…" Tony was shaking; he was trying to ignore it. He focused on his team members as they walked through the room, doing their own small searches for clues, or anything amiss.

Loki found something.

He picked up a notebook he'd noticed on the worktable; it had been laying open with a pen laying on top of the writing.

"Don't touch Peter's stuff." Tony grumbled, trying to glare at Loki.

"This is his notebook?" Loki asked, slowly raising his head to stare at Tony. "When did he write this?"

"What did he- oh, for god's sake. It's some song that book girl was singing at work. He's been singing it to himself for a few days and it is fucking _killing _me. I swear."

"What is it?" Steve asked, taking the book. "I don't recognize the lyrics."

"I can't imagine you would." Loki said stiffly. "It is a song called Mistress of the Sky."

"Brother you can't-" Thor began, then noticed the book and slowly took it from Steve s he could read it for himself. "By gods."

"Kai is an Asgardian god, or spirit, who represents the sky and the sun. His mistress is the sun; it is an Asgardian song about the eternal love between the two of them."

"How did the young spiderling come across it?" Thor wondered out loud. "Friend Stark said he got it from the girl he had been working with. How could she have come to learn the song?"

"…It couldn't be from the…wizard? Could it?" Tony asked. Maybe Peter going to that place had been a mistake after all. What if he was some kind of target now? "Or whatever it is."

"It is…possible but it still highly concerning that they know the song at all; it is a traditional Asgardian song and very few Asgardians have been outside of Asgard…except for war." Loki said, glancing at Thor.

"We must find out more." Thor said. "We can not risk any harm coming to the spiderling by this being's hands."

"Who has it not…helped yet?" Tony asked.

"Natasha and Bruce, I would say so far." Steve said. "Bruce might be the best bet since he has an understanding over the…energy levels it's been showing. We could keep Nat nearby, in case Bruce needs a rescue."

"If the creature is capable of bringing out the Hulk, this young book lady may need to be rescued instead." Loki pointed out. Everyone nodded; they were beginning to find more risks as they discussed the plan. Bruce was nervous about the plan they decided on in the end but his curiosity over what they were dealing with won over his nerves in the end. Tony dropped Bruce off outside the building the girl worked in, reminded Bruce about the emergency alert before driving off to park the car outside a café nearby where he could it with Steve and Natasha. Bucky was waiting with Clint on top of a roof facing the building Bruce had walked into; Bucky wasn't going to be swayed on having eyes from up high. He was insistent on it; Clint agreed with him it was an important precaution.

"Good morning, how can I help you?" Sarah asked when she noticed Bruce walking into the foyer.

"Morning, I'm here to…Tony asked me to come check on some book? He said he'd arranged a drop in with David but his plane's late coming back from some Stark Industries…stuff…so he asked to come by for him." Bruce told her; he hoped he didn't sound as nervous as he felt.

"Oh, I see. David has been busy in meetings for an expo he's been asked about attending so it's possible it slipped his mind. Molly is the only artist in today, so you won't be interrupted." She said, raising from the desk and leading Bruce down the hallway towards the workroom.

"Molly?" She called out as she knocked on the door. "Sorry to interrupt, could I come in?"

There was a 'sure' from behind the door, which Sarah pushed open slowly before stepping into the dark room.

"I know you're busy, I'm so sorry but this gentleman is here on behalf of Mister Stark." She said with a smile. Molly turned in her chair and glanced at Bruce, looking him over once before sighing.

"It would be nice if David could let me know when people were coming by. Let me pack up and I'll be with you." She said, turning back to what she was working on so she could pack it away.

"I'll leave you to it then, give a shout if you need anything." Sarah said, giving a wave before leaving the room, closing the door behind her. Bruce looked over the various stacks of books and papers on the shelves around the room. When he leant over to look at a book he thought he recognized, his jacket pocket opened up enough for his pens to fall out and tumble to the floor.

"Sorry!" He said quickly, crouching down to pick them up; he was careful to accidentally kick one under a desk without noticing. "I always forget about them. I'm forever losing pens so I keep lots of them on me."

Molly was standing up now, looking at Bruce with what he could've said was noticeable frustration.

"Sorry, again, I was just looking at this." He said, nodding at a book on the desk. "Is it…an actual copy?"

She was quiet for a moment but eventually nodded.

"Yes, I've been meaning to look at it but there's been no interest from any buyers so far, since much of the original artwork is missing. It's mostly notes from previous owner-"

"How much?" Bruce asked, then smile a little bit. "Sorry, Tony's stuff first. Seriously though-"

"Mister Stark's book is underway, there some's supplies I'm waiting for in the mail but they won't take long."

"Wow that was quick-"

"We already had the book and most of what I needed for it. You can have that." She said, sitting back at her workstation and unpacking what she'd been working on.

"What?"

"The book, you can have it. I'm tired of looking at it." She said without looking back at him.

"But…"

"Please take the book."

Bruce nodded, even though she wasn't looking at him, and grabbed the book from the desk without a second thought. He held it as tight as possible on his way to find the others. They were in the café they'd agreed on earlier, looking at a laptop that was in the middle of their booth.

"You were meant to ask about a book not get one-" Tony said with a smirk but was cut off by Bruce.

"She's crazy!" He spat out; he was out of breath from practically running to the café. "The last time I saw this book for sale it was ten grand and _that _was too cheap to believe. It can't be real if she just…gave it to me."

"Go order something and come join us, we'll see if she says anything." Tony said. Bruce nodded and hurried off to the counter to order himself a noodle salad and a coffee, before joining them at the laptop. Tony had plugged a headphone splitter into the laptop, and four sets of headphones were plugged into that. Bruce's food arrived quickly, and the team were left alone in the back of the quiet café.

"There, energy levels! Set it to that frequency we had it on at the tower." Bruce said; Tony was already doing it. The odd static that came from silence was interrupted by a male voice that definitely wasn't Larry or David.

"_He seems like a nice man, can we not invite him for dinner? You could make dinner, you make such nice pasta." _

Tony snorted at the voice, glancing at a blushing Bruce who was paying a good deal of attention to his noodles.

"So it…just talks around her? Is it stuck maybe? If she can't hear it-" Steve was interrupted by Molly speaking.

"_You aren't nearly as good at knowing voices as you think you are." _


End file.
